Author
Topic: Rigs that got away (Read 4120 times)

Way back when I first started I practically devoured QRP Quarterly, Sprat and Radcom: certain rigs kept cropping up in these mags. I ended up lusting after two:

Heathkit HW-8 kitHeathkit HW-9 kit

The WHY is easy: those who wrote about these rigs did so with very obvious enthusiasm and affection. Like many rigs, they had their limitations and quirks but the overall simplicity and performance marks them out as rigs well ahead of their time. If either of these kits were produced today, I'd buy one like a shot.

I really regret not buying one way back when Heath were still trading. The Youkits mini hf rigs probably perform better, but they ain't Hot Water 8s & 9s.

I deeply regret SELLING my HW8, after buying my first QRO rig at the end of the last century... I especially regret this after visiting a friend (PA3ADJ) a while back who has a collection of QRP rigs including a HW7, HW8 and a TENTEC argonaut 509, another fine rig!

Hmmm, this topic could run and run...I regret selling my TS120V to buy George Dobbs' TenTec Argonaut 515.I regret selling the TT Argo when I needed to get rid of either the Argo or the TT Omni D, wish the Omni had sold instead...Regret selling my Racal RA17L which I used alongside homebrew & kit Tx's.

But I wouldn't swap my Elecraft K2, K1 or KX3 for any of them... So the regret isn't too heavy to bear.. My shack is as well equipped and pleasurable as I could wish.

It's a bit like cars one now wishes one had hung onto, like my first one a 1937 Austin or my Triumph TR4A but it's a question of space and finance.

As far as radios go - There a Heathkit Apache TX, a massive bit of kit that you could just about climb into, loaded it up using a light bulb, but about the size of a dog kennel so had to go. I've still got some of the bits.A Heathkit SB-101. Sold that along with a matching scope and bullet microphone. I've still got a set of spare valves.A Racal TRA?, can't remember the model, but it was fairly rare. Most of the production run had been sold to the Jordanian army. My one had been pulled out of an antarctica base in the 1990s and the previous owner had blown the PA transistors. I needed the cash and sold it to a friend for next to nothing

Well i don´t regret i sold my first HF rig, it was one HW101, and i also got me one ramp with digital diplay to this radio, yes it was one display in a box to place above the rig, it contains a frequence counter with nixietubes. Realy nice to see the sifhers walking front and back in the tubes. Instead i bought me one Drake TR-4C, still taking place here. Unused for many years.

Well I don't regret, but the TEN-TEC ARGOSY MODEL 525-D was the one I loved very much and one that I kept 15 years of very good service and I had really lot of fun with it doint thousands of QSO's

The Argosy was a well respected rig: it still is!! -Great shame it could not be equipped with the WARC bands. Seriously, if I had to choose between having WAC and digital modes, I think I'd go for WARC. Digital modes come and go: CW is for ever. Floreat CW! (Latin, yet... )

When I returned to Ontario in Dec 1967 I left my No11 tank radios at my rooming house (lac deux montagne). They were complete and in working condition. At 17 hormones and cars had taken over and radio seemed not important. Now I wish I had even one of them to use. I have never even had a chance to replace them. Must be very rare. I bought them at RADIO Centre in Chomedy for $4.95 EACH about 1964Don

Regrets, I've had a few. Argonaut 509 and 515, TS-130V. I always believed they would be around for a long while and I would be able to purchase another. Not so! Suddenly miniaturization evolved and now if you want a new QRP rig it has to be small and lightweight. I'm not into portable operations and operate from my home QTH. I don't need or want small and lightweight.

Fortunately, I have a HW-8 which is decent size and a OHR100A which, while not as large as I would like, is manageable.

Logged

Low-tech amateur radio in a high-tech amateur radio world. 72/73 de Dick

Regrets, I've had a few. Argonaut 509 and 515, TS-130V. I always believed they would be around for a long while and I would be able to purchase another. ...<snip>... Fortunately, I have a HW-8 which is decent size and a OHR100A which, while not as large as I would like, is manageable.

Richard,I wish I could remember why I sold my TS130V. I really do, it was a nice rig with a quiet receiver. <sigh...> I never achieved an Argo and I really envy you the HW-8. Those things are classics, absolute classics.

Hi Jenny,I am sorry I did not make it clear what I meant by 'quiet receiver'. Some rigs create a significant amount of internal noise from PLLs, power supplies to the lcd displays and so on leaking hash into the audio circuit. With a dummy load on the antenna socket (ie no signal), noisy rigs have too much self generated electrical noise: when you are looking for very weak signals, rig noise makes it much harder to do. If I remember right, the worst offenders were some early hybrid rigs with transistorised receivers and valve finals.

I once had the privilege of servicing a beautiful JRC rig which belonged to a blind friend. ( I was afraid of making a bad job. That thing was very expensive) Each printed circuit board slotted into its own screened enclosure: the engineering was very fine. If you heard a buzz or a noise, it was guaranteed to have come from the antenna. Even when using headphones the rig was quiet and very, very sensitive. It probably has modern equals but I could not afford them!!

At a lecture given by George Dobbs, G3RJV, he said "If you come across a radio with coils in the front end -buy it!!" The Rev. Dobbs knows a thing or two about weak signal QRP work, so I took that advice to heart. I don't know of any modern commercial rigs which fit that description.....

Like mine TS2000 with the antenna in i hear a noise at 1S - 3S sometimes at daytime, disconnecting the antenna and i can forget to turn off the radio because i cant hear much from it. I will remember my old HW101 was quiet also, but i think tubes did not generate same amount of noise as semiconductors do.